Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

cut

Synopsis

cut options [files]

Cut out selected columns or fields from one or more files. With no file, or if file is -, read from standard input. In the following options, list is a sequence of integers. Use a comma between values, and a hyphen to specify a range (e.g., 1-10,15,20 or 50-). See also paste and join.

Options

-b list, --bytes list

Specify list of positions; only bytes in these positions will be printed.

-c list, --characters list

Cut the column positions identified in list. Column numbers start with 1.

-d c, --delimiter c

Use with -f to specify field delimiter as character c (default is tab); special characters (e.g., a space) must be quoted.

-f list, --fields list

Cut the fields identified in list.

-n

Don’t split multibyte characters. Use with -b.

-s, --only-delimited

Use with -f to suppress lines without delimiters.

--output-delimiter=string

Use string as the output delimiter. By default, the output delimiter is the same as the input delimiter.

--help

Print help message and exit.

--version

Print version information and exit.

Examples

Extract usernames and real names from /etc/passwd:

cut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwd

Find out who is logged on, but list only login names:

who | cut -d" " -f1

Cut characters in the fourth column of file, and paste them back as the first column in the same file:

cut -c4 file | paste - file